On 22 and 23 June 2022 MRI organised storytelling workshops in Pécs within the frame of our UPLIFT project, with the participation of local young people and local experts and practitioners. After having done the qualitative research phase of the project, including 40 interviews with local young people and several interviews with local experts on housing, education and employment, these workshops intended to share the stories we have heard and put together to challenge some of our early conclusions before finalizing the local case study report on Pécs.
We organized three separate group discussions: 1) with some of the young people with whom we have made the interviews, 2) with local experts and practitioners in the field of education (school director, expert on programmes for young people with learning difficulties, experts from Tanodas and social institutes) and 3) with local experts and practitioners on housing (homelessness service providers, social institutes).
We have invited some of our young interviewees for a group discussion about some of the main points that were drawn from all the interviews with young people. Our discussions were based on pre-defined questions letting the participants build their own narrative which we are able to compare with our concluding observations on their possibilities and actual capabilities in the field of education, employment and housing. This method helped us find common pathways that seemed to be more likely based on common socio-economic situations.
- In housing: The conversation affirmed that there are seemingly unbridgeable gaps between the public rental sector and the private rental market, and between the private rental market and the owner-occupied market.
- In employment: The statement said by many experts that ‘all who want to have a job can have it in Pécs’ was proved to be rather overgeneralizing, hiding main barriers of accessing a desired labour market position: like being Roma, having a child or children. Moreover social capital and informal mechanisms seem to be crucial in discovering different opportunities in the labour market, which, even if determined by status, constitutes a more effective labour market asset than institutionalised opportunities such as those provided by the Employment Office.
- In education: The discussion on educational possibilities and experiences reinforced the picture that the segregated nature of the institutional system in Pécs results in a strong path dependency of school choices (e.g. from elementary to secondary), and the limitations of institutions such as Tanodas that are complementing the school system, e.g. in regard to age groups.
The methodology was somewhat different in the meeting with local experts and practitioners in the field of education, where three focal points were defined: the capacity of the local education system to create opportunities, cooperation between schools, and early school leaving in late adolescence. The conclusion of the meeting was that most of the problems root in the ‘resource space’, the current national educational system that strengthens school segregation and creates competing institutions instead of collaborating ones. Education was considered as a part of a social system in which social disadvantages should be treated from birth. It was also emphasised that teacher education must be reformed concentrating more on pedagogical skills and the freedom of educational methodologies. Finally our assumption was strengthened that there are practically no services for young people above 14-16 years – in case they do not have a child. It seems to be a lost age group, in that aspect.
In the workshop with local housing experts and practitioners we have discussed the following statement, which we have found to be describing the essence of housing problems in Pécs: ‘The main problem is the deep gap between the different housing positions. If there is no possibility to move from one position to another, then perverse behaviours occur to stay safe in the current position.’ Local experts have reassured that the municipal stock is rather rigid: it is unlikely to exit if one got access to a municipal flat; both the system seems not motivating for leaving the municipal sector and both the local market rental sector seems to be unwelcoming especially with people from the Roma community and families with children, while entering to the public rental sector is very limited and impenetrable as eligibility criteria is rather unclear and again informality seems to be playing an important role.
These main points will be further analysed in the upcoming Case Study Report on Pécs.